Human Morality

Most of us believe in constructing and practicing a moral code. As individuals we all have our inclinations and predilections, some of which boil down to rather capricious pet peeves or even involuntary tastes or turn offs. We know that individually we all have our own standards, hopes, and expectations of moral thinking and behavior, some of which can change over time or even can change in the instant, or from day to day. 

As an example, let's take the case of a person who eschews caffeine and caffeinated products. Avoiding and not consuming this chemical is his/her normal way of life. They do not drink caffeinated coffee, tea, or soda, which contain higher amounts of caffeine. Chocolate, on the other hand, which has trace amounts of the substance, is consumed with little consideration for its caffeine content. Also, once in a while the individual who is opposed to higher caffeine consumption drinks a Coca Cola or Pepsi that has higher amounts of it than chocolate. However, based on the infrequency of its consumption, the non-caffeine consumer believes he/she is conforming within their moral code decently.

I suppose one could posit that this is relative morality, but the person maintains still that he/she is a believer and practitioner of a "no caffeine" diet, and the exception of products with trace amounts that he/she ingests like chocolate does not count for them as a definition of real consumption, nor does the occasional can of caffeinated soda. Maybe this person is actually living their moral code at an 85 percent rate, not really a 100 percent follower, but that rating is high enough for that person to feel that he/she is in compliance with the no caffeine rule.

Full disclosure, that example may describe me. So be it. 85 percent compliance of a marginally harmful drug is not too bad, right? Who knows. I don't drink the ones prohibited by my faith, which are coffee and tea. That's pretty go.

Add to the individual (you, me, each person, etcetera) all the human and non-human relationships that we are a part of, and thus we grow our communities, or socialities, aka societies, of our respective moral codes and standards. Religious or not, every human being is their own moral seeker and belongs to one or more community of morality.

A declared anarchist who believes that no one should rule and there are no moral absolutes, that there should be no rights and wrongs and all such moral determinations are arbitrary, much less organizations or communities that should enforce them, still has their own moral imperatives and strictures. The anarchist is an extreme believer in freedom, yes?

So we build out from there; obviously a huge part of the enforced moral codes of humanity is the nation of which we were born and consequently belong to. The rule of law of each country and its constituents greatly affect and how the person may view morality. Murder, stealing, sexual crimes, and all sorts of nuanced behaviors are judged by the public at large, police, the lawyers and other public servants, the judges and prisons.

Thus religions and their followers, and political beliefs and those that adhere to them or impose them, civil rights advocates and environmental cause participants all have their various moral causes and the reasons behind them.

And inevitably there is competition between the causes. The causes of morality.

I thought I would write more about how these causes and moralities become conflated and co-opted, how disagreements and human frailties and worse, like greed and hatred, turn beliefs and their attending morals into dangerous areas of strife and suffering.

We all want to live morally, at least most of us. But we know that it is very impossible to accomplish at 100 percent, or whatever way we can measure such things.

Can we be morally compliant at 85 percent?